John Nash Column -- Ten years later

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Nobody came out and laughed in his face. Nobody stared at him as though he had two heads or one Cyclops-like eye in the middle of his face.

"It was more kind of like, 'What are you doing that for?' or 'What do you know about that sport?'" said Matt Forker, who joined the Stamford Black Knights field hockey family as a freshmen coach in the fall of 1999. "I definitely know a lot more now than I did then."

One thing is certain. Nobody's laughing or saying anything anymore. Not in front of him, not behind his back, not from anywhere.

Forker, celebrating his 10th anniversary with the program, is now the fourth-year head coach of the defending state champion Black Knights.

He, just like his team, has come a long way in the last decade.

"Winning cures a lot of things and when you win a lot of games, they stop messing with you," Forker said of those friends who did rib him for coaching a predominantly female-coached sport.

He arrived in the city by the time he reached fifth grade, moving across the Sound from Long Island. After graduating from Stamford High School and going off to college, though, Forker returned to his new hometown and got a job at his alma mater.

Forker knew ice hockey. But shortly after he started his teaching career, he was pulled into the girls field hockey program to coach a bunch of ninth graders in a program that was struggling to grow.

"I didn't know a whole lot about field hockey, to be honest," Forker said. "I knew little or nothing about the rules, other than the basic strategy."

He spent two years coaching and learning in trial-by-fire fashion and then another four coaching at the junior varsity level before ascending to the top job four years ago.

"I remember my first year (as varsity coach)," he recalled. "I think we scored like 11 goals the whole season. That was tough to watch."

That year, however, Forker remembers calling up one of the ninth grade players to the varsity after she had scored five times in a freshmen game.

"I remember my first game was against Westhill," Laura Dembofsky said. "I was on the end of the bench, hoping my name wouldn't get called and then I hear, "DEMBOFSKY!!" and I'm like, 'Oh, (bleep)."

Dembofsky admitted she was intimidated back in those days, both as a player and by her coach. But as she got better and the coach got better, the program got better, as well.

"He's a great coach," Dembofsky said. "He's a good motivator. He knows what he's talking about. We all try our hardest to give what he wants. He's inspirational."

Their first varsity team won only five games. The next season, the Knights won seven. In the third year, they won 17 games and that player that got the varsity call as a freshman -- Dembofsky -- scored the game-winning goal in Stamford's state championship victory over Newtown.

"That was pretty special," Forker said. "You know, everybody goes in there thinking they can win it, but it's like we tell the girls, there is only one winner in the end. But it was really nice to see all their hard work pay off in the end. They really deserved it. They're a tough bunch of girls."

He also loved how the entire city reached out to him and his girls, supporting them and applauding them as they made their run to the title.

"It was really awesome," Forker said. "You don't realize what's going in the moment, when it still hadn't sunk in, but then you talk to coaches in the building -- guys like Bobby Augustyn and Jimmy Moriarty, guys who have won -- and you realize it's a big deal and how important it is to everybody."

This fall, however, Stamford will to be much tougher and Forker has the experience to know that.

The team -- which is front-loaded with a ton of offensive firepower -- heads into the season with the best one-two scoring punch in the state (Madi McLauglin and Dembofsky), a top-notch goalie (Heather Wilson) and a bull's-eye the size of the Trump Parc tower on their back.

And, Forker knows, the team has expectations that are just as high as last year's -- if not higher.

There are still some challenges to overcome -- a defense that will grow with every game and a key position in the middle of the field to be filled -- the goals are simple.

"These girls want to win this thing again," Forker said, 10 years after he joined the program and had to learn the difference between third party obstruction and regular obstruction. "That's their goal. They probably won't say it out loud too many times, but I know that for a fact."

One thing is certain. Nobody is laughing at them as they try to do it.

John Nash is The Stamford Times Sports Editor. He can be reached at 354-1051, or by e-mail at johnnash@ thestamfordtimes.com.